Going through a lifestyle change? Trying to be healthier, live healthier, eat healthier? Let’s talk failure. Is it not everyone’s goal in life? To fail?

Thought so.

So today I thought I’d share with you a list of 6 ways to insure you fail, as you impark on your journey. Health or fitness or lifestyle, whatever it may be, these tips should work for you.

Go big or go home. Make sure that you set your goals as high as you absolutely can. You want to make sure that your expectations of your possible accomplishments meets the expectations of others. If you are going to set a goal, you have to make sure that it is a “good one”, worth setting. Mediocre, attainable, boring goals wont do. To add to that, if you are going to set your goals equal to that of which other people have already accomplished, then you must make sure that you are ALREADY better than them. It can be acceptable to be at the same level, but certainly you must not be “worse” or your efforts are invalid.

Or you could risk not being the best and lift as much as you’re able to, to prevent injury… but really… who wants that?

If you cannot commit to every aspect of whatever it is you are doing, then you may as well just not bother doing it. That is, don’t think you can take so called “baby steps”. For example if you are going to tout healthy living, then you must only ever eat whole organic, fair trade foods, no preservatives, no gmo’s, no packages-no sodium-no sugar-no colors AND no saturated fats, for the rest of your life… always. NO exceptions. If you can not adhere to this guideline then you will have to cease all association to healthy living.

Understand that others have a right to judge you. If you enjoy a product and/or a past time that someone else believes does not fit into your lifestyle goals, then you MUST change immediately. Touching back on number 2, if someone points out that you are a “fake” because you enjoy that one food that has added sugars and artificial flavors, then you HAVE to understand that they ARE correct. You must then either stop eating it, or give up.

Do it right or don’t do it at all. Want to be vegan? Better be the right KIND of vegan or don’t bother. What to be paleo? Touch a peanut, ever, and you are paleo no longer. What to be a yogi, better downward dog better than Gandhi. There is no room for growing, learning or mistakes.

Make sure that you choose your diet choice carefully. You may not change your mind later. You simply are not allowed to jump from diet choice to diet choice to find what works best for you. That type of flippancy will not be tolerated. Vegetarian, pescetarian, paleo, raw foodist, whatever the case… once you choose… no taksies-backsies.

You must be 100% all the time. Don’t bother calling yourself an enthusiast for ANYTHING if you are not enthused by it ALWAYS. Simple as that.

Also this is no good, one or the other, just know your choice will determine your label.

NOW just in case the odd person reading this would prefer to go the other route and not fail, I thought I’d just throw some extra tips here at the end… just to be fair.

Some of the best advice I’ve heard is to be honest with yourself and set priority based ATTAINABLE goals. Understand what your priorities are… i.e. kids, school, job, mental health, physical health etc., and set your goals based on where everything falls on that list. Some will be able to have fitness, for example, as #1 on their list, others will not, and that’s ok.

Learn to rest not to quit. When you find yourself lacking motivation, you’re in a funk, you’re tired, or whatever the case, understand that you are allowed to take a break. Taking time off is not failure as long as you don’t let it be.

If you need to re-start, or re-vamp, or re-invent 5 times or 100 times, it doesn’t matter. You will never be the same exact version of yourself, in any aspect of your life, for every single year that you get to live and breathe on this earth. This is the beauty of being. Learning and growing and changing, and no one should every feel guilty for not being “the same” as they were 5 years ago… or even 5 months ago.

Don’t get discouraged by the need to be perfect. The number one way to become discouraged is feeling like you have to do everything right all the time. Buy those slightly less healthy granola bars because they’re on sale for $0.98, and who cares if your shopping cart is half veggies and fruit and half cookies and cupcakes. Can we all just work to get rid of this all-or-nothing mentality that says if you aren’t doing something all the way, then don’t do it at all? Something is ALWAYS better than nothing when it comes to bettering your health.

Get out of your own head. Read aloud to yourself tips 1 through 6 above, and understand how ridiculous it all sounds. Understand MOST people actually aren’t judging you for how you do life, don’t believe you have to be perfect, or quite honestly just don’t care! Then every time you feel like you’re failing, no good, not doing it right, ready to quit, can’t do it, feel judged, feel behind, or fake… re-read it all out loud again, pull yourself out of your head, and carry on.